Connecticut's Whitney Mixter Saves 'The Real L Word'

Whitney Mixner, the tattooed special effects makeup artist with a
reputation as a heartbreaker, not only was retained by the series, returning
tonight on Showtime; she arguably is the center of the show, around which all
the action occurs.

Quite an achievement for the young woman from Eastern Connecticut, who
grew up in Hebron before graduating with honors from Glastonbury High School.

"Of course I'm flattered," Mixter says from Los Angeles of surviving
and being advanced on the show. "I'm honored to come back to the project,
although it was bittersweet for me to see those girls go from season one. They
were like family for me."

But the producers, she adds, "were ready to explore new avenues this
season," she says. "I think you'll find it's more fast-paced, a little younger
maybe. At the same respect they've found women dealing with a lot of complex
issues, or going through similar stages of their lives."

Her newfound celebrity means she's often stopped by passerby, and not
just other lesbians. "A lot of male cops recognize me for some reason, and they
always comment in a good way," she says. "Maybe it will result in fewer
tickets, I don't know."

Mixter says she has no beef with how she was portrayed last season -
as pretty much the kind of player that the character Shane was in the original
scripted "The L Word" that preceded the series.

"That was me," she says. "I don't dislike myself as a person, so I can't
say I dislike how I was depicted. The reason why it came off that way last
season is that we didn't put up walls in every situation. That's why you saw
graphic things, in the bedroom and stuff. I wanted to expose myself, be
honest and I wanted it to be a growing experience."

Indeed, there are few figures in reality TV anywhere that have been as
exposed as Mixter. While other shows may cut away or shut the bedroom door, she
was consistent in leaving it open.

"I'm comfortable with myself and comfortable with my body. Being on a
premium cable network allows you to have that freedom and lack of censorship
which I'm always about. They wanted the reality of lesbian life in Los Angeles,
and that's part of it," she says. "And maybe people don't know that. To expose
people to that may open their mind. I never thought we were doing anything
gratuitous. I was consenting adult with another consenting adult. If I have any
regrets, I have regrets for the situation."

The only way to get something out of the experience was to approach it
uncensored," she says. Though she adds: "There were definitely times I cringed
at things I did."

Even so, she says, "People I know know how I am as a person. My family
and friends have been really supportive, even though there were some
jaw-dropping moments, where people were like, 'Whitney!' I definitely told my
mother to avoid episode seven last year. But a lot of people appreciated that I
didn't censor myself. I got a lot of support."

She had to deal with the reaction people had. "People love to hate
you, and hate to love you. But I feel solid in my friend and family support
base. If you want to love me, awesome; if you don't, that's fine too."

Still, she says, "If there were some things I didn't like about
myself, I worked on them this season."

That means appearing to be more monogamous and expressing interest in
getting together with an old flame. "I don't want to give anything away," she
says, as if explaining her life would be tantamount to a spoiler alert. "But
you will definitely see me more ready for that, and try to get comfortable with
that feeling myself. Whether or not the circumstances are right is the
question.

"I would say that I slowed down my player ways," she says. "But there's
definitely not a lack of action. It's more about me trying to figure it out."

Born and raised in Connecticut, Mixter says she was "pretty much the
same" as she is now in her 17 years of growing up. "I did well in school and
did my thing," she says. "But I was definitely the wild child growing up. You
could ask my friends."

She's certainly heard from them herself. "I've gotten a lot of
Facebook messages from familiar faces in high school past and stuff like that.
They're all proud of me and whatnot. We all keep links."

She returns to her home state when she can to visit her mother, who
lives in Glastonbury, and her father, who lives in Hebron. "Connecticut
summers, I can't miss. It's all about the lake and the barbecue. The changing
of the leaves I always come home for. There's no such thing as fall anywhere
else but New England. And I miss winter, I always have to come back to sled and
snowboard."

Mixter was the rare high schooler of more than a decade ago who came
out about her sexuality "really early on," she says. "My family was always
really supportive, so I was really lucky. I didn't face any bashing and was
pretty well supported by family and good friends growing up, even coming from a
fairly conservative area."

Even so, she says she tries to keep aware of the anti-bullying
campaign currently going on, and realizes that like it or not, she's a role
model for young people.

"Being in the public eye and a lesbian woman, it's a natural thing,
whether or not you see yourself as a role model, you are in some sense," Mixter
says. "If I can help them give them confidence, and show that being an
individual is being celebrated, that's an honor for me.

"I certainly get email from young girls and take time to help them
out. I know it is difficult for them. It's always something where you can feel
really alone. So if I can be there for them, it's an honor for me."

Mixter, the seeming belle of Los Angeles, has only lived there for
less than three years; before that she lived for nine years in New York. And
though she was pointed to a degree in law after graduating in political science
at Pace University, she shifted into more artistic pursuits, and when a friend
moved from beauty makeup to sci-fi makeup, she went on board.

"I was always obsessed with horror movies," she says. But after
working on a few independent horror movies, she finds most of her work with the
military - giving realistic effects makeup to soldiers in the field as part of
training exercises.

"I'm a very antiwar person and I wasn't sure about the role I was
taking at first," she says. "Then I realized that the military training
actually helped people and prevented casualties."

Work on a horror film plays a prominent role in the series this
season, however.

Mixter says she doesn't know how long "The Real L Word" will last, but
she'd like to stick with it as long as she can. "I feel this is something been
with it since the beginning , so I'll stay with it if they ask me back," she
says. "I'm interested to see where it goes."

THE REAL L WORD begins season two tonight at 10 on Showtime.

ABOUT

Roger Catlin is TV critic for the Hartford Courant and writes a daily column about what's on television called TV Eye. He is also on the board of the Television Critics Association. Before all of this, he was rock critic ... read more